Graham, in all seriousness, running it with the wings off could be a bit dangerous, especially with a 2 blade prop, which, on low rpm produces an irregular torque action; the carb is going to stick out the top cowling, if you mount the engine in the correct position ,but if you don’t the exhausts wont line up with the cowlings.

Depends on how you read it. You could see it as making sure there’s a level playing field for traders. If you are a legitimate trader and you are up against a bloke selling the same stuff useing e-Bay to sell the same volume as you without paying tax, you’d be right to feel aggrieved. The way I read it the IR might look at a threshold figure for people who are using e-Bay in this way, and stop them ducking their tax obligations and preventing them from having an unfair advantage in the marketplace.

In much the same way as someone claiming unemployement benefit and trading ,can under cut someone else “doing it legit”, but I dont think the inland revenue are too bothered about level playing fields, they just want yer money!

I notice from the 1st of March, there will be VAT on sellers accounts @15%, as ebay has opened a branch in the EU (Luxembourg).

In conventional auctions “running up” your own item is a generally accepted way of controlling the final price that your item makes; many dealers prefer that to setting a reserve ,as they are inflexible, and depending on the mood of the day , something that is reserved a say £1000- might only get to £975- , the seller might choose to take £25- less, whereas I believe on ebay although you can lower the reserve price, there is a time limit on that,i.e not during the last few hours, which ironically is when all the action takes place.

The golden rule is don’t get carried away bidding, there will always be another one come along, and another after that, etc; I buy as much as I sell on ebay (although not the same things ,OBVIOUSLY!), when selling I put an item on with a starting price, which is the absolute minimum I will take, and when buying, I put I bid on (as late as possible by analogue methods) with the top price that I am prepared to pay.

What it comes down to is knowing how to value a specific item, and that comes from years of getting it wrong (a form of apprenticeship with an NVQ at the end of your time served).

NVQ , Not Very Qualified…

In my view, something that starts off with a data plate and some original structure, or fittings, but ultimately is rebuilt incorporating only a small percentage of “original” parts (that can be linked with the data plate), is, no more a rebuild than something that starts off as a new build, but aquires an “identity” at a later stage.

For me the term reproduction has been degraded by cheap furniture that has nothing to do with the original piece, other than it bears a passing resemblance ;the quality of wood, and the types of joints utilised are a far cry from the original; also the abbreviation of reproduction to “repro”, seems an intentional slur on which it describes, you don’t hear original abbreviated to “orig” or genuine to “gen”.

Always a bit sensitive on what to class our Spit project..Will have to change our webpage header I know.Is reproduction the one to go with?Yes we are also making a mess as well:rolleyes: …:o

How about calling it a “spitfire project”, and then after it’s finished, wait and see what everone else says about it;…. works for me.

Just out of curiosity, how many people have ever replaced the head of an axe? I put a handle on one 20 years ago and used it every day for 10 years, now I don’t know where it is!

I think I can make out a diff housing on the front axle, in my opinion that makes it a Militant; cabs on AEC are largely irrelevant, it is the chassis layout that dictates the name given; many post war AEC’s had cabs built by Park Royal (well known coach builders) the Mamoth I had was a Park Royal cabbed version, but still a Mamoth.

Most of the Matadors that I have seen have an “eyebrow” shape to the top of the cab (above the windscreen), this doesn’t,;most of the crane versions that I have seen, have been the 6×6 Militant.

Its worth throwing a rope over over the leading edge of a roof ,(either prior to, or during a storm); I’ve got one over the roof of my house at the moment thats been there for a couple of months.

I had a building destroyed christmas 1990 (thanks god!) and spent boxing day onwards putting it back up, after that I used to park a digger next to it and lower the bucket (gently) onto the roof; I’d often get up a 2am and go and start the digger up to do this when the wind got up.

Who said eccentric…